Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Learning From Houston!

Life takes a completely new route once you
leave India and come to Houston. Same old lines and same clichés to begin with!
So what do I begin with? Well, I will begin with two things about Houston that
fascinated me the most.

Like every student living off campus I too
take the Metro everyday to reach college. In my initial days here I was shocked
one day to see a female bus driver! Yes, the Indian in me is not used to such
sights! And I was filled with
fascination at first and later on with admiration. We proclaim girls are
catching up in every field but what is the reality? How many of us have seen
female traffic inspectors or bus drivers or for that matter female police
inspectors in India? Very few may be.
Frankly, I had not seen any. Agreed that these numbers are increasing in India
too but it’s a long journey as of now. So for the beginning, I raise a salute
to all the minority of women in India who are coming forward to take the less travelled
routes! You go girls!

Another heart warming incident that shook the
Indian in me happened yesterday. At one stop in the journey to college in the
bus, the driver stopped the bus at a stop. All of a sudden, he got up from his seat,
lowered the floor of the bus and helped a person with disability to embark on
the bus. He fastened a belt with the man’s wheel chair and asked him if he was
comfortable. After making sure that he had done his job satisfactorily he
started driving again. Well, sensitivity towards people with disabilities is
one area that our country needs a lot to do about. Here, we find separate
reserved parking spaces, special accommodations in even the washroom made for
people with special needs. That gesture speaks volumes about the sensitivity
level of the community. This is one change for which I would like to work once
I go back to our country. Even if on a small level we can show that persons
different from us are also part of us, that would truly be a service to the
great nation we come from.